MPIF member profile: Phillips-Medisize Corp.

Growing demand for metal-injection-molded (MIM) parts from automakers, engine producers, industrial equipment makers, and medical device companies has required Phillips-Medisize Corp. to expand its MIM facility twice in the past three years. Combining the strength of metals with the formability of plastics, Phillips-Medisize Chief Technology Officer Bill Welch says MIM is becoming more popular as automakers try to lower vehicle weights to comply with 2025 fuel economy mandates.

“We offer materials, technologies, and design assistance to maximize the value of MIM – mass reduction, complexity, and functional capability increases. MIM’s value in supporting the CAFE requirements is the inherent benefit of three-dimensional, complex metal alloys that can be molded similar to plastic injection molding, to net or near net shape,” Welch says.

From its Wisconsin facilities, the company supplies vehicle makers with MIM internal transmission components, actuators ignition modules, turbo charger vanes and vane levers, seat latch mechanism components, fuel injector valves, other fuel system components, and plastic automotive components. Welch says he expects MIM orders to grow as powertrain parts get smaller and more complex in next-generation engines. MIM candidate parts include variable valve systems and fuel rails for direct injection gasoline and diesel engines. MIM could be used in sensor housings, struts, actuator arms, and other precision components.

“As a company, we continue to evaluate new materials, develop focus controls, and improve process efficiencies for our MIM capabilities as well as our other capability offerings,” Welch says.

MIM popularity has been growing in many markets, he adds. Medical orders make up about half of the company’s MIM production, but he says transportation markets were also very important to recent expansion decisions.

“It really has been the growth in all markets that led to our two facility expansions in the past three years. In addition to batch furnaces, we now have four continuous debind and sintering furnaces, of which two are dedicated to stainless steels and specialty alloys,” Welch says. “The dedicated furnaces allow for cost competitiveness, efficiencies of scale, as well as a more stable, steady-state, and predictable process with reduced variability.”

Phillips-Medisize Corp.

www.phillipsmedisize.com